Manual Transmission Issue

[Shawn]

Take two. I thought that I posted this topic a couple of days ago but it appears to have disappeared, so here it goes again.

We are having manual transmission issues with Michelle's Jetta TDI. The background is that I noticed that the shifter required extra effort when the car was cold. And I don't mean in winter type cold, like leaving the car for a few hours in the driveway in May kind of cold. Driving the car, even on the highway, for 15 minutes and it would loosen up. I initially thought that maybe the fluid was low or old so I changed it out...no change at all. The fluid looked fine too when it came out, not too dark and no metal shavings.

At the time the a/c was acting up so we took it in to the dealership (we have extended warranty) and they ended up replacing the shifter (and they fixed the a/c too but that's irrelevant). Immediately the shifter was back to it's normal smooth operation but engaging 1st gear was difficult. It felt like the adjustment was off in that if you pulled the shifter all the way to the left and tried to push up then the shifter felt like it was hitting something. If you didn't pull all the way left you could get first no problem. Michelle drove for a few days and mentioned that 6th gear was a 50/50 chance of being able to engage too. She went out of town for a few days but last Thursday she was back and working and driving the car. She called me to say she was having all the same problems but it was getting worse. Eventually the call came that she can't get into first or second at all.

I did a little diagnostic and found that I seemed to be able to get the shifter into what may be 1st gear and second gear but releasing the clutch resulted in no forward propulsion. I could get 3rd but it's too tall to try to drive...I tried and then thought better of the clutch that went in last year. Had the car towed to St. James VW to have them fix what I assumed was a shifter linkage adjustment. Got the call Friday from my service advisor saying that the linkage is fine that they think it is an internal fault.

I am no in Winnipeg now soo I can't go look at it myself. As it stands VW is not doing anything at the moment, I have asked them to just wait. This might be covered under my warranty but until they pull the trans ans look at it closer they cost would be on me. Fine but I need more info first.

So the questions to you are:

1. If the shifter was in fact misaligned initially, knowing that we could select the gear and there wasn't any sort of grinding or force needed, could this have caused something in the trans to fail? Also this whole issue occurred over about 200-300 km of driving.
2. From what I described about being able to get the shifter into what seemed like 1st and 2nd but letting off the clutch did nothing, is that even possible? I could get 3rd gear so the front to back seemed to be working. But can a trans be inbetween the 1-2 and 3-4 position?

Any thought or opinions are welcome. I plan to go take a look at the car Saturday evening to see if I can adjust the linkage or at least detach the linkage and manually put the car in first or second gear.

 

Shawn

[MRS Joe]

I wonder if a fork failed internally in the transmission? Synchro that broke? 

Otherwise is there any coronation between gears 1,2, and 6?  

1/2 are prob on the same shift shaft.   

I personally would try engaging the gears without the linkage (disconnected) manually to see if it goes as you intended to. Regardless that's bs for a car of that vintage.